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The Joy Luck Club

 The Joy Luck Club
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TVTItem
 The Joy Luck Club
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The Joy Luck Club
 The Joy Luck Club
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TheJoyLuckClub
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The Joy Luck Club is a 1989 novel by Amy Tan.The book centers around four mother-daughter pairs living in San Francisco. The mothers are Suyuan Woo, An-Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair. The daughters are, respectively, Jing-Mei (June) Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair. All of the mothers immigrated from China during their lives, and much of the book talks about their relationships with their mothers, with the exception of Suyuan Woo. The book is structured in sixteen chapters, each narrated in first person by one of the characters; the first four are told by the mothers, the next eight are told by the daughters, and the last four are told by the mothers, all with the exception of Suyuan Woo, who is dead at the beginning of the novel, so Jing-Mei takes her chapters. Most of each chapter is dedicated to a flashback of the narrator's childhood, usually regarding a particular incident or series of events involving that character's mother.The novel was adapted into a 1993 film, executive produced by Oliver Stone and directed by Wayne Wang. It starred Ming-Na Wen, Tamlyn Tomita, Lauren Tom, and Rosalind Chao as the daughters, and Lisa Lu, Tsai Chin, Kieu Chinh, and France Nguyen as the mothers.In 2020, the 1993 film adaptation got inducted into National Film Registry preservation list by the Library of Congress.
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2023-04-22T21:12:46Z
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2023-04-22T21:12:46Z
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You Know What They Say About X...
 The Joy Luck Club / int_11d23d45
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You Know What They Say About X...: Again, implied by Mrs. Jordan to Rose.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_12dd1d4c
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Rape as Drama
 The Joy Luck Club / int_12dd1d4c
comment
Rape as Drama: Tyan-Yu and Lindo in "The Red Candle." Huang Taitai enables and condones this because she wants an heir. However, nothing happens anyway. In the film, Tyan-Yu thrusts something at Lindo and makes her scream — but it's only his pet lizard! His mom is in Selective Obliviousness. Poor An-Mei's mother gets this in spades. Second Wife arranged her violent rape in order to trap her into concubinage. Being the degraded Fourth Wife of her rapist is one of the many things that drives her to suicide.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_14beeefd
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Darker and Edgier
 The Joy Luck Club / int_14beeefd
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Darker and Edgier: Arguably, the fate of Ying-Ying's first baby in the movie. In the book, Ying-Ying gets an abortion. In the movie, Ying-Ying carries it to term but later drowns it, acting listless the whole time.
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Dull Eyes of Unhappiness
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Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Poor Ying-Ying.
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"Well Done, Son" Guy
 The Joy Luck Club / int_1779f10e
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"Well Done, Son" Guy: Waverly and Jing-Mei feel this about their mothers, who constantly compared each of their daughters to the other's.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_18aff462
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Artistic License – Biology
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Artistic License – Biology: (In-Universe) Lindo's mother-in-law cannot understand why her son hasn't sired any children yet. It's because he hasn't hit puberty; in other words, he's physically too young to be a father.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_1c445e86
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Poor Communication Kills
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Poor Communication Kills: Mr. St. Clair could never understand his wife fully because of this, resulting in a marriage run mostly by tolerance than true love. Even Lena realizes that her father can merely "put words in her mother's mouth." Also, a common case between the mothers and the daughters. This is played tragically in the case of Canning and Suyuan Woo just before her death. Suyuan discovered that her abandoned daughters were still alive and a friend found them shopping together and wrote her a letter about this which reignites the hope that had faded away over decades. She tries to encourage Canning to go to China but neglects to mention the reason why she wants to go and he refuses because he thought she just wanted to go on a vacation at the time and they were getting too old to be tourists in their seventies. Not long after this, she dies from an aneurysm, and only too late does Canning realize the meaning of the words when he receives a letter from his wife's daughters. He confesses to his aunt and Jing-Mei that it's one of the biggest regrets of his life.
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"Rediscovering Roots" Trip
 The Joy Luck Club / int_1f67b15
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"Rediscovering Roots" Trip: Jing-Mei/June goes to China after her mother's death. In experiencing life in China and telling her two half-sisters about their mother, she is finally able to make peace with her Chinese heritage and her tumultuous relationship with her mom.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_1f6983f7
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Ambiguous Situation
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Ambiguous Situation: In the book, the state of Lena's relationship with Harold is up in the air. Also, while it hints that Rose will get the upper-hand in her divorce with Ted, Rose's arc ends abstractly enough. The film avoids these by showing in the present day Lena is with a new man she’s visibly happier with and Ted, who was written as less of a jerk, was able to reconcile with Rose.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_23473ae7
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Adaptation Expansion
 The Joy Luck Club / int_23473ae7
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Adaptation Expansion: Some parts were added to the film.
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Babies Make Everything Better
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Babies Make Everything Better: Rose in the movie admits she got pregnant "for the worst reason" in order to keep Ted from straying. It doesn't work, though they both do love their daughter.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_269e82c1
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Death of a Child
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Death of a Child: Four-year-old Bing Hsu (drowned) and Ying-Ying's sons (the first one was aborted because it belonged to her awful first husband and the second one was born with a hole in its head and no brain).
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_28114487
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Bald of Evil
 The Joy Luck Club / int_28114487
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Bald of Evil: Lena's husband Harold's baldness is a visual cue to his cold soullessness, along with the grey clothing and furniture. His replacement in the film version is notable for having thick, luxurious hair, symbolic of his warmth and goodness.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_2978c012
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Stage Mom
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Stage Mom: Suyuan and Lindo in regards to their daughters' piano playing and chess playing. Suyuan especially counts since the only reason Jing-Mei picked up the piano in the first place was that Suyuan was trying to force her into being a child star.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_297ab1b9
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Parental Abandonment
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Parental Abandonment: Entirely unwillingly, on Suyuan's part. An-Mei's mother, due to her circumstances. She takes An-Mei so she could live a better life in a wealthier household, ironically committing this again by abandoning An-Mei's younger brother. It's explained in the book that taking her son to a house where she serves as a concubine would rob him of a future since it would cut him off from his father's family, yet her son would never belong to or be treated well in the new one.
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There Are Two Kinds of People in the World
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There Are Two Kinds of People in the World: When Suyuan scolds little June for playing the piano badly, she tries telling the little girl that there are “Only two kinds of daughter: obedient or follow-own-mind. Only one kind of daughter could live in this house: obedient kind."
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_38d02d44
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Batman Gambit
 The Joy Luck Club / int_38d02d44
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Batman Gambit: Lindo's plan of getting out of her first marriage. Having spent a long time observing her in-laws and watching over a maid that had become pregnant, she tells her mother-in-law about a dream that a man with a mole (one of their ancestors) touched both her and her husband to cause their bodies to rot if they continued with their marriage as well as plant the seeds of a child into a maid who was actually of royal blood. Lindo manages to not only successfully get out of her marriage with money to go to America, but she helped the maid be able to go on to a better life for both her and her child.
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So Beautiful, It's a Curse
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So Beautiful, It's a Curse: An-Mei's mother, whose beauty attracted Wu-Tsing enough that Second Wife was able to convince him to rape and marry her against her will.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_44f5d199
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Pretty in Mink
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Pretty in Mink: Waverly's fiancé giving her a mink coat.
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You Are a Credit to Your Race
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You Are a Credit to Your Race: Implied by Ted's mother Mrs. Jordan when she speaks to Rose at an outdoor barbecue.
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Jerk with a Heart of Gold
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Jerk with a Heart of Gold: This is more emphasized in the film version with Waverly. In the book, although she outgrows her petty rivalry with June in adulthood, she does compliment June for her writing work but tries to explain to her what didn't work out about it and unintentionally opens June's emotional wounds (due to this scene being told in June's point-of-view, Waverly is never aware of this). In the film version, the same scene happens, but the framing device shows that June and Waverly are on better terms and Waverly sincerely wishes June well in meeting her long-lost family.
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Jerk with a Heart of Jerk
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Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Rose grows to realize that Ted is self-centered, often blames the brunt of his issues on her, and ultimately tries to kick her out of her house, expecting her to react well to the news of his cheating and asking for a divorce. In the film, they communicate and reconcile; in the book, they don't.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_48e8fe57
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Happily Adopted
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Happily Adopted: Suyuan's twin daughters. The book even states the girls' adoptive mother tried to reunite them with Suyuan after the war.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_4b316d47
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Break the Cutie
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Break the Cutie: Varying cases between this and Break the Haughty through all of the characters.
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Rape as Backstory
 The Joy Luck Club / int_524f94d3
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Rape as Backstory: An-Mei's mother in "Magpies."
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_53c9fc92
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Flashback
 The Joy Luck Club / int_53c9fc92
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Flashback: All the mother and daughter stories up to the present.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_590eb583
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Domestic Abuse
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Domestic Abuse: Lena's husband is of the financial abuse variety. Ted grows into an emotional abuser to Rose.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_5a40d6a
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Adaptation Distillation
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Adaptation Distillation: The film kept most of the stories (with some changes), but trimmed some parts.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_5f70322e
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Public Domain Soundtrack
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Public Domain Soundtrack: While the novel mentions Robert Schumann and his Kindersczenen as the piano piece that June was playing badly as a child, the film adaptation replaces it with "Humoresque Opus 101 No. 7" by Antonín Dvořák, which the child June messes up on at the piano.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_644eca71
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Rich Bitch
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Rich Bitch: Ying-Ying in her youth before she was broken by her terrible first marriage. The Second Wife in An-Mei's story is this to a T.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_6b05b601
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Jerkass Has a Point
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Jerkass Has a Point: Rose's husband Ted is a bullying jerk in the book, though he does have a point that Rose is too much of an Extreme Doormat who should learn to make decisions for herself.
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Meaningful Name
 The Joy Luck Club / int_6bda9a30
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Meaningful Name: Loads. "Rose," in reference to her demureness in her marriage. And Lindo intentionally invokes this with "Waverly." Lindo does it with all three of her children. Her first child, a son, is named Winston because it sounds like "wins ton" and he helped get Lindo and Tin their citizenship (though he dies at sixteen in a car accident). Her second son is named Vincent because it sounds like "win cent" and sons were considered quite prosperous. Waverly's full name is Waverly Place Jong after the street they were living on at the time to give her a sense of belonging so she would never regret anything. Jing-Mei's name also has a deep meaning to it that her father explains to her the night before they're expected to meet her older sisters. "Jing" refers to something of good quality after washing away imperfections and "Mei" is short for "meimei," a term for "little sister" as a shout-out to her older sisters. Suyuan's name can translate to "long-cherished wish" which, in her case, was to see her daughters again and though she wasn't able to do so, Jing-Mei is able to fulfill that wish for her and see her sisters.
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Driven to Suicide
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Driven to Suicide: Second Wife fakes these constantly to gain the favor of her superstitious husband. An-Mei's mother. Well... it's a long story.
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Adaptation Personality Change
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Adaptation Personality Change: Ted in the film is depicted as redeemable, thus being attentive enough to save his marriage with Rose. Harold is a more blatant emotional abuser in the film, whereas the book counterpart is just casually selfish and unintentionally condescending.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_70ade2c4
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Culture Clash
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Culture Clash: When Waverly brings her American fianc´e over for dinner, he horrifies her parents by unknowingly committing every Chinese culture faux pas during the meal. Protip: When a Chinese cook says the food they've made probably isn't very good, that means they actually think it's awesome.
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Like Brother and Sister
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Like Brother and Sister: Literally, verbatim, Lindo describes her relationship with her first husband as this.
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Armor-Piercing Question
 The Joy Luck Club / int_7b6e47a5
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Lena's and Harold's marriage is not-so-subtly symbolized by the bedside table he made in college: a huge slab of granite on spindly little legs that'll collapse under the slightest pressure. She finds it ugly and useless, yet he keeps it around because he likes it (much like the terms of their marriage), and she often has to tiptoe around it. Around the same time that her mother's Armor-Piercing Question makes Lena aware of how dysfunctional their marriage is, his pitiful table collapses in the guest bedroom her mother is staying in.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_7febc23b
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Establishing Character Moment
 The Joy Luck Club / int_7febc23b
comment
Establishing Character Moment: In the book, the first sign that Ted is a terrible person is when Rose tells him about his mother's racist statements and he's angrier at Rose for not standing up for herself than at his mother's racism. Notably, due to his nicer and redeemable portrayal in the movie, he is present when said racism is directed at Rose, and he rightfully calls his mother out, and he and Rose are eventually able to reconcile their marriage.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_80621707
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Arranged Marriage
 The Joy Luck Club / int_80621707
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Arranged Marriage: Lindo's first marriage, to a Spoiled Brat.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_80a247a9
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Breather Episode
 The Joy Luck Club / int_80a247a9
comment
Breather Episode: After the heartbreaking story of An-Mei's new family in "Magpies" and Ying-Ying's rather troubling young adulthood in "Waiting Between The Trees" and before Jing-mei's trip to China in "A Pair of Tickets," "Double Face" is a lighthearted and rather humorous tale detailing how Lindo and Tin met and overcame a language barrier to fall in love and get married so they could have a child and become citizens.
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Defiled Forever
 The Joy Luck Club / int_813afa05
comment
Defiled Forever: An-Mei's widowed mother is raped by a strange man and is then forced to marry him because she is considered defiled. Even worse, the Second Wife spreads a rumor that the intercourse was consensual.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_81ae2774
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Evil Matriarch
 The Joy Luck Club / int_81ae2774
comment
Evil Matriarch: Huang Taitai in "The Red Candle" is pushy and demanding toward not only a young Lindo but her own son in an effort to gain a coveted grandson despite them being too young to have children, especially Tyan-Yu. Second Wife in "Magpies" makes her look like a saint in comparison with her manipulative behavior and bouts of pretend suicide to get what she wants and make sure no one else can get the benefits that she does. Both of them do get humbled in their own ways by the end of each story.
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type
Bait-and-Switch
 The Joy Luck Club / int_8797239c
comment
Bait-and-Switch: Ying-Ying's first adult book entry hints that she was kidnapped and forcibly impregnated as a young girl since Lena's father claims that he saved her from "a fate too horrible to talk about" in China, and Ying-Ying absent-mindedly babbles to her young daughter that she fears she might get kidnapped and forced to have a baby by strange men. Her second entry disproves this: She willingly married a friend of her rich father's, but he turned out to be a crass philanderer who abandoned her a few months after their marriage, and she hated him so much that she aborted his child out of spite.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_8d0461e2
type
Destructive Romance
 The Joy Luck Club / int_8d0461e2
comment
Destructive Romance: Rose comes to realize that she's living in one.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_916c72b3
type
Rule of Symbolism
 The Joy Luck Club / int_916c72b3
comment
Rule of Symbolism: Lena's and Harold's marriage is not-so-subtly symbolized by the bedside table he made in college: a huge slab of granite on spindly little legs that'll collapse under the slightest pressure. She finds it ugly and useless, yet he keeps it around because he likes it (much like the terms of their marriage), and she often has to tiptoe around it. Around the same time that her mother's Armor-Piercing Question makes Lena aware of how dysfunctional their marriage is, his pitiful table collapses in the guest bedroom her mother is staying in. Rose's and Ted's garden. Her inability to make any choices means he decides everything, including the house's carefully trimmed yard. After they separate, she lets the garden become overrun with weeds due to her indecision. When he comes over to browbeat her into signing the divorce papers so he can remarry and move his new wife in, he declares his intention to rip up the yard to put in something new. This helps Rose find the strength to tell him "No." She declares that she likes the wild look of the yard and will fight him to keep the house since she refuses to be a weed that he can just pluck up and throw out of his life.
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type
Never My Fault
 The Joy Luck Club / int_973d220f
comment
It's implied he was drawn to her due to her submissiveness, and his ability to push her around. After his first malpractice lawsuit, he got fed up with her inability to make any decisions, without acknowledging that part of the reason she's such an Extreme Doormat is because of him.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_9b60b728
type
Addled Addict
 The Joy Luck Club / int_9b60b728
comment
Second Wife in An-Mei's mother's story, in spades. She got First Wife addicted to opium to keep her docile and compliant, and she arranged Wu Tsing's marriage to Third Wife in the hopes of passing off their eventual son as her own, knowing the girl's poverty ensured she'd be too grateful to cross Second Wife and homeliness ensured Wu-Tsing would never favor her. When Third Wife also only had daughters, Second Wife befriended An-Mei's widowed mother to arrange her violent rape and marriage to Wu-Tsing to pass off the ensuing son as her own. On top of this, Second Wife constantly fakes being Driven to Suicide in order to scare Wu-Tsing into giving her her way all the time. Harsher in Hindsight when you read Amy Tan's autobiographies and realize that this stuff all actually happened.
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type
Rounded Character
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comment
Rounded Character: A specifically-praised aspect of the novel is that it was among the most prominent to portray Chinese-American women as such.
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type
Odd Name Out
 The Joy Luck Club / int_a0eeac39
comment
Odd Name Out: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Bing.
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type
My God, What Have I Done?
 The Joy Luck Club / int_a1b141f4
comment
My God, What Have I Done?: In the film, Ying's reaction after she kills her child.
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type
My Death Is Just the Beginning
 The Joy Luck Club / int_a2dd3c5
comment
My Death Is Just the Beginning: An-Mei's mother, trapped in a horrific marriage to her rapist, commits suicide by poison, but does so two days before the new year. Folklore states that the third day after death is when a spirit returns to settle old scores — and you do not want a spirit angry with you on New Year's Day. An-Mei's mother ensures her daughter and son will be cared for.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_acf33d00
type
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain
 The Joy Luck Club / int_acf33d00
comment
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Rose might have eventually gotten around to cashing Ted's $10k check and divorce papers had he asked nicely rather than show up in person to berate her for making him wait, angrily declaring that he's been cheating on her and wants her to move out so he and his new wife can move into the house. This pushes Rose to finally grow a spine (like he wanted), and she declares that she will fight him to keep the house and get a better divorce settlement.
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The Joy Luck Club / int_acf33d00
 The Joy Luck Club / int_aed65980
type
All for Nothing
 The Joy Luck Club / int_aed65980
comment
All for Nothing: Suyuan is forced to abandon her twin baby girls by the side of the road so she could keep fleeing the Japanese. She wound up collapsing from exhaustion less than a mile down the road, and was rescued by a truck picking up refugees while passed out. For the rest of her life, she lamented that if she had just held onto them a little longer, they all could have been saved without being separated.
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The Joy Luck Club / int_aed65980
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type
Be Careful What You Wish For
 The Joy Luck Club / int_b06bbf4b
comment
Be Careful What You Wish For: Rose's husband Ted gets this twofold. It's implied he was drawn to her due to her submissiveness, and his ability to push her around. After his first malpractice lawsuit, he got fed up with her inability to make any decisions, without acknowledging that part of the reason she's such an Extreme Doormat is because of him. After endlessly browbeating her to make a decision while married, this comes back to bite him when she decides to reject his pitiful divorce terms and fight to keep the house.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_b0a529cb
type
Extreme Doormat
 The Joy Luck Club / int_b0a529cb
comment
Extreme Doormat: Tan makes it pretty clear just how terrible the consequences can be if a woman acts as such and the book is quite critical of a culture that encourages such.
 The Joy Luck Club / int_b0a529cb
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_b0bce7aa
type
Selective Obliviousness
 The Joy Luck Club / int_b0bce7aa
comment
Tyan-Yu and Lindo in "The Red Candle." Huang Taitai enables and condones this because she wants an heir. However, nothing happens anyway. In the film, Tyan-Yu thrusts something at Lindo and makes her scream — but it's only his pet lizard! His mom is in Selective Obliviousness.
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type
Abusive Parents
 The Joy Luck Club / int_b11ac9f5
comment
Abusive Parents: Abusive aunt and uncle in young An-Mei's case. Lena thinks she encounters one in the apartment next to her as a child, but it turns out the mother and daughter are only playing. In Lindo's case, a forceful abusive mother-in-law puts a lot of pressure on her son and Lindo to conceive a child.
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type
Baby Factory
 The Joy Luck Club / int_b1e9444f
comment
Baby Factory: An-Mei's mother fills this role in her loveless marriage. It's revealed that Second Wife arranged her rape so she could pass off the ensuing son as her own.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_b352e864
type
Sexless Marriage
 The Joy Luck Club / int_b352e864
comment
Sexless Marriage: Lindo's and Tyan-Yu's marriage, being he has no interest in her and he is downright terrified at the idea of consummating the marriage. Also, there's the fact that they're children when they're married.
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The Joy Luck Club / int_b352e864
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type
Child by Rape
 The Joy Luck Club / int_bb7ae292
comment
Child by Rape: The film adaptation directly indicates An-Mei's half-brother is a product of this.
 The Joy Luck Club / int_bb7ae292
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The Joy Luck Club / int_bb7ae292
 The Joy Luck Club / int_bc00493f
type
Precision F-Strike
 The Joy Luck Club / int_bc00493f
comment
Precision F-Strike: In the film adaptation, Ted gives this to his own mother after she makes remarks towards Rose. Likewise, Rose later gives Ted this when calling him out on his emotional neglect of her.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_bf1c906
type
Trophy Wife
 The Joy Luck Club / int_bf1c906
comment
Trophy Wife: Wu-Tsing engages in concubinage to attain a few of them.
 The Joy Luck Club / int_bf1c906
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The Joy Luck Club / int_bf1c906
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type
The '80s
 The Joy Luck Club / int_c10da874
comment
The '80s: The novel's set time.
 The Joy Luck Club / int_c10da874
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type
Jade-Colored Glasses
 The Joy Luck Club / int_c2e2a445
comment
Jade-Colored Glasses: As an adult, Waverly blames her mother Lindo for making her view her life this way. She laments that she realized her first husband's faults after her mother met him, and she always views her house, clothes, and life in a more negative light after her mother comments on them. It takes her finally confronting her mother to learn that Lindo never intended to make her feel bad about herself or her life — that it was Waverly projecting her insecurities onto her mother.
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The Joy Luck Club / int_c2e2a445
 The Joy Luck Club / int_c5fe6c81
type
Strong Family Resemblance
 The Joy Luck Club / int_c5fe6c81
comment
Strong Family Resemblance: "Together we look like our mother." Jing-Mei, finding her lost sisters.
 The Joy Luck Club / int_c5fe6c81
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_c867e57
type
TheRoaringTwenties
 The Joy Luck Club / int_c867e57
comment
The Roaring '20s: In the sequences with the mothers' childhoods. More evident in An-Mei's and Ying-Ying's stories, given how they were raised in wealthy families with some Western influence.
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Broken Bird
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comment
Broken Bird: Young An-Mei, and Lena's mother Ying-Ying.
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Cheerful Child
 The Joy Luck Club / int_d53ad027
comment
Cheerful Child: 4-year-old Ying-Ying in "The Moon Lady."
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type
Memento MacGuffin
 The Joy Luck Club / int_da4d59ae
comment
Memento MacGuffin: The jade necklaces.
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_e603890a
type
Artistic License – Music
 The Joy Luck Club / int_e603890a
comment
Artistic License – Music: At the end of the section Two Kinds, she mentions playing two songs from Robert Schumann's Scenes from Childhood, Pleading Child and Perfectly Contented, thereafter realizing that the two songs are actually two halves of the same song. The two songs, actually known as Bittendes Kind and Glückes genug, are actually separate songs from the same book, Kinderszenen, only that they are beside each other. At least the German names were translated into the English names properly.
 The Joy Luck Club / int_e603890a
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The Joy Luck Club / int_e603890a
 The Joy Luck Club / int_e94ff7e2
type
Financial Abuse
 The Joy Luck Club / int_e94ff7e2
comment
Financial Abuse: Lena's husband Harold does this to her. Despite making seven times her salary, he makes her split all the costs "fifty-fifty" and acts as if it's fair. He also gets rich off her ideas for his company without giving her payment or credit. It takes her mother questioning why she has to pay for ice cream that she doesn't eat for her to realize this.
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The Joy Luck Club / int_e94ff7e2
 The Joy Luck Club / int_ec40626
type
Love Martyr
 The Joy Luck Club / int_ec40626
comment
Love Martyr: Rose believes that her submissiveness respects her husband Ted. Of course, she outgrows this mindset.
 The Joy Luck Club / int_ec40626
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The Joy Luck Club / int_ec40626
 The Joy Luck Club / int_fed93e1b
type
Dark and Troubled Past
 The Joy Luck Club / int_fed93e1b
comment
Dark and Troubled Past: Most of the mothers.
 The Joy Luck Club / int_fed93e1b
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 The Joy Luck Club / int_ff7f34c5
type
Pet the Dog
 The Joy Luck Club / int_ff7f34c5
comment
Pet the Dog: The introduction of Second Wife seems to be this. She gives An-Mei a "genuine" pearl necklace as a welcoming offer. Then An-Mei's mother exposes the necklace as fake to An-Mei, hinting at Second Wife's conniving and manipulative nature...
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ItemName
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The Joy Luck Club

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 The Joy Luck Club
hasFeature
An Immigrant's Tale / int_1e2c4217
 The Joy Luck Club
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Asian-American Media / int_1e2c4217
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Babies Make Everything Better / int_1e2c4217
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Break the Fake / int_1e2c4217
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Child by Rape / int_1e2c4217
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Compliment Fishing / int_1e2c4217
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Defiled Forever / int_1e2c4217
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Destructive Romance / int_1e2c4217
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Dreadful Musician / int_1e2c4217
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Evil Matriarch / int_1e2c4217
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Films of 1990–1994 / int_1e2c4217
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Friendly Local Chinatown / int_1e2c4217
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Generational Saga / int_1e2c4217
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I Want Grandkids / int_1e2c4217
 LaurenTom
seeAlso
The Joy Luck Club
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Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow / int_1e2c4217
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Miss Conception / int_1e2c4217
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Pain Mistaken for Sex / int_1e2c4217
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Please Wake Up / int_1e2c4217
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Pretty in Mink / int_1e2c4217
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"Rediscovering Roots" Trip / int_1e2c4217
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The '80s / int_1e2c4217
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The '80s / int_1e2c4217
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The Film of the Book / int_1e2c4217
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The Four Gods / int_1e2c4217
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Top Wife / int_1e2c4217
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Unwanted Spouse / int_1e2c4217
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Wall Bang Her / int_1e2c4217